SAN DIEGO – There were times during Andre Ethier’s first two seasons in the majors when he seemed to take the phrase “Boys of Summer” a little too literally.

For all the eye-popping, jaw-dropping, hyperbole-inducing promise he showed, the Dodgers outfielder had yet to prove he could carry it into September, a month when pressure tends to be high and energy levels tend to be low.

This year, Ethier has carried it deep into September. And on Tuesday night, he carried the Dodgers to a couple of other things.

First, a 6-2 victory over the San Diego Padres in front of 26,614 at Petco Park.

And second, a 2 1/2-game lead in the National League West.

Continuing a resurgence that began right around the time Manny Ramirez began watching his at-bats from the on-deck circle, Ethier tripled, doubled and drove in four runs in the process. The last three of them came on a bases-loaded, ninth-inning shot into the right-field corner, transforming this game from a one-run nail-biter with the ever-shaky Jonathan Broxton warming in the bullpen to a foregone conclusion, leaving Ethier standing triumphantly on second base with his 18 th hit in 28 at-bats this month.

Ten of those hits have gone for extra bases.

“I think it’s just a matter of getting comfortable,” Ethier said of exorcising his late-season demons. “That first year, it was about not knowing what to do, and maybe there was too much pressure. Maybe last September, I was a little worn out from the long season, and there were some tough things we were going through with the race and kind of dropping (out of contention) a little bit.

“This year, we have a chance to reach our goals. We want to win, and when you have that taste, that feeling, it just adds a little bit of intensity and energy to your activities.”

Last September, Ethier batted .247 with three home runs and 10 RBIs in 73 at-bats. Coming into this season, he was a career .198 hitter after Aug. 31.

“Andre is having at-bats that have been of such high quality,” Dodgers manager Joe Torre said. “I remember earlier in the year, he would get frustrated when he would get behind in the count and stop being selective. They can’t do that (to him) anymore. In a lot of situations, he has been able to fight for that at-bat, and I think (this game) was a perfect example of that.”

In his five plate appearances, including the two hits and a first-inning walk, Ethier saw 23 pitches. He was a major contributor to the fact the Dodgers (74-71), despite being flummoxed for six innings by Padres rookie left-hander Wade LeBlanc, were able to push LeBlanc’s pitch count to 93 by the end of the sixth inning and thus force him from the game.

It was against the Padres’ very suspect bullpen that the Dodgers erased a 2-1 deficit – their only run production through those first six innings came on a solo home run by Ramirez leading off the sixth inning – and turned it into a resounding victory that gave them a 2 1/2-game cushion over second-place Arizona in a division race that now appears to be the Dodgers’ to lose.

The Dodgers’ bullpen, as usual, came up large. After Hiroki Kuroda gutted his way through six innings in which he gave up nine hits but somehow minimized the damage enough to hold the Padres to two runs, Chan Ho Park, Joe Beimel (5-1), Cory Wade and Broxton held the Padres scoreless, and in fact hitless, over the final four innings.

With LeBlanc out of the game, the Dodgers broke it open in the eighth against Heath Bell (6-6). Russell Martin led off with a double, snapping a string of 13 consecutive hitless at-bats dating to Friday. Ethier followed with his triple, tying the game. And Ramirez gave the Dodgers a 3-2 lead with a sacrifice fly to the base of the wall in straightaway center, a drive that would have gone out of a lot of major-league parks.

The Dodgers put it away in the ninth. Blake DeWitt singled with one out. Matt Kemp, pinch-hitting on a rare night when he was out of the lineup, delivered another single with two outs. And after a walk to Martin, Ethier cleared the bases with his game-clinching double, capping yet another performance in what has been an epic month for the Dodgers right fielder.